Factor Model of Stock Returns Based on Who Owns the Stocks

Is following the lead of certain types of equity investors as effective as using widely accepted factor models of stock returns? In their March 2021 paper entitled “What Do the Portfolios of Individual Investors Reveal About the Cross-Section of Equity Returns?”, Sebastien Betermier, Laurent Calvet, Samuli Knüpfer and Jens Kvaerner construct a factor model of stocks returns based on demographics of the individual investors who own them. They construct investor factors by each year reforming portfolios that are long (short) the 30% of stocks with the highest (lowest) expected returns based on holdings-weighted investor demographics and then measuring returns of these hedge portfolios the following year. They compare these investor factors to conventional factors constructed from firm/stock characteristics. Using anonymized demographics and direct stock holdings of Norwegian investors (an average 365,000 per year), and associated firm/stock characteristics and returns (over 400 stocks listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange), during 1997 through 2018, they find that:

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